The present invention relates to an improved cutlery sharpening apparatus and method of sharpening a cutlery blade and more particularly to an improved apparatus and method for holding and moving cutlery blade edges to be sharpened relative abrasive grinding surface means, the cutlery blades being of various sizes and shapes.
It has long been known in the cutlery art to utilize machinery to hold a cutlery blade in contact with an abrasive surface and move one relative the other to sharpen the blade edge by abrasive grinding. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,435,671, issued to Earl W. Clark et al. on Feb. 10, 1948, teaches a knife holding device which brings a knife blade into grinding contact with an abrasive surface and maintains such contact while moving the blade relative the surface at a substantially fixed angular relation. U.S. Pat. No. 2,456,482, issued to H. W. Barnard et al. on Dec. 14, 1948, teaches a knife blade grinding machine which disposes a knife blade between movable grinding wheels throughout all phases of blade movement and which automatically tilts the knife blade as it reciprocates relative the moving grinding gap. And, U.S. Pat. No. 2,475,455, issued to H. T. Nicholas on July 5, 1949, teaches a knife blade grinding machine which also disposes a knife blade between movable grinding wheels which wheels move consequent to reciprocating motion of the knife blade, the contour of the blade finish being controlled by a follower cam.
The apparatus as taught by these patents and by other known prior cutlery sharpening machines and as taught by previous cutlery sharpening methods have been comparatively complex and costly in manufacture, assembly, and maintenance and in operational steps, often requiring numerous parts which have had to be machine tooled with precision care and which nevertheless have led to frequent wear and concomitant maintenance problems. Furthermore, the apparatus and methods of the prior art have been limited in the types and shapes of cutlery blades which could be sharpened efficiently thereby and have often required complex and numerous steps in the blade sharpening processes involved.
The present invention, recognizing the limitations in the apparatus and methods of prior art, provides a straightforward, economical and efficient method and apparatus, the invention disclosed herein being inexpensive yet efficient in manufacture, assembly, maintenance and operation, requiring a comparative minimum of parts in the herein disclosed apparatus and a comparative minimum of straightforward operating steps to efficiently and economically carry out the novel disclosed method.
Various other features of the present invention will become obvious to one skilled in the art upon reading the inventive disclosure set forth herein.